Beer Can Hill

Choose Privacy Week Video from 20K Films on Vimeo.

April is sexual assault awareness month.

Castle Bravo was the code name given to the first U.S. test of a dry fuel thermonuclear hydrogen bomb device, detonated on March 1, 1954, at Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands, by the United States, as the first test of Operation Castle.

More photographs of Margaret Wertheim’s work can be viewed here.

March 6th 2010 – Culver City,California.

The proceeds benefit the Down Syndrome Association Of Los Angeles, Inc. a 501 (C) 3 non-profit organization, to enhance the lives of those born with Down syndrome in the Greater Los Angeles area. To learn more about the organization go to: DSALA.org

Barn Owls can be found all over the world. The World Owl Trust has a wonderful site about how you can help owls in your region.

More information about this project visitWafaa Bilal’s official site.

Kaka face new human threat
By KIRAN CHUG – The Dominion Post

Kaka around Zealandia have a healthy squawk but it is their powerful beak that is making them unpopular with some residents.
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Saved from the brink of extinction in Wellington, kaka could face a new threat from humans, with one city dweller threatening to kill them.

Zealandia conservation manager Raewyn Empson said a small number of people living near the Karori sanctuary had called with complaints about the rare parrots eating plums from their trees. One had called threatening to kill the endangered bird, which Ms Empson said was “very unwise”, given that they were strictly protected.

However, most who called to report kaka sightings were thrilled to see them. Ms Empson said Wellington was the only city with a breeding population. “All indications are that the kaka are here to stay.”

The birds tended to gather at dawn and squawk noisily, but Ms Empson said their song had not generated complaints – a far cry from 2008, when the sanctuary said people were ringing to complain about noisy tui, after an explosion in their numbers.

At Wellington’s Botanic Gardens, manager David Sole said kaka were stripping the bark of some exotic trees to get at insects or sap. The birds, which had particularly strong beaks, had damaged two birch trees, which might not survive.

Conifers had also been damaged, but Mr Sole said the damage was a small price to pay for seeing more kaka in the park. “They’re getting to be part of the activities.”

Ms Empson said that, although most Wellingtonians realised the “enormous privilege” of seeing more kaka in the city, that could also cause problems.

Some had started feeding kaka, but it was important not to lay out food on a deck or lawn for them regularly. The birds would return for food each day, but cats would do the same – and would kill them.

It was also important not to hand-feed kaka, not only to give them the best chance of survival in the wild, but because they could become a nuisance or dangerous once the feeding stopped.

Kaka particularly liked sugar and salt, but should not be given bread, cake, rice, chocolate or leftovers, because they could kill their delicate digestive systems, she said. It was best to leave them to find grubs, nectar, fruit and seeds.

Last updated 05:00 12/02/2010

For more information about Kakas visit these sites:

New Zealand’s Department of Conservation.
Wikipedia.
Parrots.org’s photo gallery.
ExploringNature.org’s fact for kids.

By EMMANUEL TUMANJONG (AP) –  February 10th, 2010

YAOUNDE, Cameroon — A conservation group is caring for more than 1,000 African gray parrots with help from an Ohio zoo after the birds were rescued from smugglers who had stuffed them into crates bound for the Middle East.

At least 120 of the birds have died since they were saved last month. The remaining parrots have been transferred to a wildlife conservation center in the West African nation, said Ofir Drori, director of a conservation group called the Last Great Ape Organization.

“The birds have been tied down for too long. They are very tired, many are sick,” he said Tuesday.

The parrots are kept as pets, but they also are believed to possess special powers in countries such as India, China, Nigeria and Cameroon, where the birds are used by witch doctors for rituals.

Cameroonian officials found the parrots stuffed into poorly ventilated wooden crates at the airport. Drori said the crates were being ferried to a Kuwait-bound Ethiopian Airlines flight.

The birds will be released into their natural habitat in a few months after veterinarians complete treating them, Drori said.

The Columbus Zoo in the U.S. state of Ohio said it will provide a grant of $6,000 to help feed the parrots and provide emergency care.

It was the third time in two years that authorities have stopped a shipment of parrots from being taken onto an Ethiopian Airlines flight. Ethiopian Airlines could not be immediately reached for comment.

In 2007, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora put a ban on the trade and export of the African gray parrots in five countries including Cameroon.

Two days before the authorities saved the 1,120 parrots, the Last Great Ape Organization, with the help of U.S. investigators and the Cameroon government, tracked down an Internet trader in the southwest regional capital of Buea who had struck a deal to deliver 23 African gray parrots to the United States. The trader is now awaiting trial.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

For more information, see this site.

“I hope we shall… crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations, which dare already to challenge our government to a trial of strength and to bid defiance to the laws of our country.” ~ Thomas Jefferson, letter to George Logan. November 12, 1816

And remember kids, vasectomy cures abortion!

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from MNN.com:

According to a report by the Worldwatch Institute on nuclear waste, Karachay is the most polluted spot on Earth. It was used by the Soviet Union as a nuclear dumping site, and now the radiation level here is so high that it’s sufficient to give a lethal dose after just an hour of exposure.

A displaced woman walks along the street of Altos de la Florida shantytown carrying a parrot on her shoulder in Soacha, in the outskirts of Bogota, on August 7, 2009. Bogota authorities estimate that some 52 displaced families arrive to the capital city (population 7 million) every day from different regions of the country, part of the approximately three million displaced people around Colombia caused by almost half century of conflict. (EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP/Getty Images)

Press Release:

A woman is locked up in a transparent suitcase reading “Stop Human Trafficking! 60 Years of Human Rights” on a luggage belt at the airport in Munich, southern Germany, on December 11, 2008. The Human Rights organisation Amnesty International staged the action commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations. Based on France’s 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and the 1776 US Declaration of Independence, the 30-point non-binding text of the declaration was initially adopted by 58 states, with World War II’s atrocities fresh in their minds. “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,” proclaimed Article 1 of the text.

_{Beer Can Hill is participating in Blogathon 2009 by updating twice an hour, for 24 hours, today. Proceeds are going to RAINN.}

Article from Time Magazine.

_{Beer Can Hill is participating in Blogathon 2009 by updating twice an hour, for 24 hours, today. Proceeds are going to RAINN.}

RAINN needs volunteers to staff its hotline.

_{Beer Can Hill is participating in Blogathon 2009 by updating twice an hour, for 24 hours, today. Proceeds are going to RAINN.}

“I lost two things that night – my teeth and peace of mind.” - – Florence Holway, rape survivor.